Who/What/Wear: Charlottesville Street Style

I stopped BREE outside her workplace, Low Vintage, because her ’70s-inflected ensemble seemed too groovy to be true. Every piece, from head to boot, is Low Vintage. Bree looks to her older sister and nature for inspiration when getting dressed and finds that working with flowers at her second job (at Hedge Fine Blooms) helps hone her eye for shape and color.

I ran into PATRICK as he was headed home from work at New Dominion Bookshop one afternoon. The vegetable gardener and co-founder of Cville Foodscapes also practices screenprinting on the side and has had his work exhibited at local galleries The Garage and The Shuckster. Patrick’s utilitarian flannel cleverly camouflages the shirt and tie required for work and lends credence to his proclaimed inspiration, Oliver Twist. Patrick’s jeans are Levi’s, his tie was purchased on Etsy and his 1920s-era frames were picked up at Fabulous Fannies in Manhattan, “The place to go for vintage frames.”

I came across ELEANOR on Fourth Street as she was strolling the Downtown Mall with her younger sister. A Charlottesville High School sophomore, Eleanor draws inspiration from British style icon Alexa Chung, whose collections for Madewell she loves, and the work of designer Marc Jacobs. “I get a lot of my stuff from secondhand shops and the Goodwill,” said Eleanor, an avid painter who notes that, “My colors in my art and my colors in my clothes are really similar.” Her menswear-inspired outfit features a secondhand Ralph Lauren shirt, combat boots by Steve Madden, an upturned Etienne Aigner belt and a piece of vintage lace used as a hair tie.

I spotted EILEEN as she was headed into her studio at the McGuffey Art Center. The Banana Republic merchandiser is completely decked out in the brand, which she relies on to keep her look current. The one aspect of her wardrobe Eileen feels in total control of
is color—as a lifelong painter, it is Eileen’s trained eye that allows her to mix bold
brights so effortlessly. The local artist credits attending high school in London as her “fashion beginning.” “Skirts were so short when we got there!”

If you’ve never heard of Jordan Rock, who’ll take the stage at Piedmont Virginia Community College on February 28, you can be forgiven. He’s never played Charlottesville, and his Web presence isn’t exactly on the level of an “Ultimate Split.” Come to think of it, his Web presence isn’t really

Author Edwidge Danticat weaves stories of strong women overcoming hardship and forging new identities in unfamiliar places. Born in Haiti, Danticat moved to Brooklyn when she was 12 years old, and the experience of transporting from one culture to another has since informed her writing, which

Robin Wynn said Google might lead you astray if you’re looking to find out what she’s up to these days. A C’ville-based songwriter who toured extensively from 2005 to 2008 and saw one of her songs get attention from NPR’s “All Songs Considered,” Wynn recently licensed a tune to the CW show

Why is popularity always the reward for quirky high schoolers in movies where the whole plot is about learning to be happy without it? You don’t celebrate your twelfth step with a shot, you don’t get a mansion after reaching nirvana, but somehow our teenage morality scripts are still peddling

Observing the fantastic world of The Convolution of Pip and Twig, it’s as if you’ve stepped through the looking glass and into a children’s pop-up book. The minimal, vibrant set uses low tech manipulations, visual metaphor and physical magic to tell a story almost entirely without words, and

Mid-month is usually a pretty quiet time in a local art gallery. First Fridays crowds have long since returned home and the promise of free wine and cheese is a faint memory. But the downtown Charlottesville gallery scene isn’t dead between opening and closing receptions. Many would argue that

The creators of the original singing Tesla coils are ready to blind you with science at ArcAttack. Backed by a robotic drummer, the group of high-tech rock wizards creates a musical spectacle by generating electrical arcs—each reaching up to 12 feet long—that act as instruments, creating

Nickel Creek, a band synonymous with progressive string music for more than 25 years, is no more—for real this time—and founding member Sean Watkins doesn’t seem to give a hoot. Co-founded by Chris Thile, Watkins and his sister Sara, the trio disbanded after a highly successful year. The band

Confession: I’ve never read a comic book. Sure, I housed volumes of Calvin & Hobbes as a child, but I always took the snooty literary view of comics. They were fine for teenage boys and any woman inexplicably drawn to gratuitous violence and triple-D boobs, but I reserved my highbrow tastes

I don’t know who or what director Sam Taylor-Johnson sacrificed to the god of false bondage, but it worked: Fifty Shades of Grey is the best film it could have possibly been given the circumstances. This is quite a different thing from saying it’s good. It’s not. At its core, this adaptation of

UVA Drama presents an evening of “bite-size” dramas entitled Vodka Variations, adapted from short stories by Anton Chekhov. The production examines the colorful world of 1890s Russia with hilarious and heartwarming glimpses into the lives of everyday people in search of love, happiness and a

Charlottesville is a music town, no doubt. What other small city can boast that it’s seen the likes of The Rolling Stones, U2 and Lady Gaga come through, not to mention hosts a healthy local scene that’s launched a couple of groups into straight-up rock stardom and keeps a slew of smaller

In January, Charlottesville audiences experienced Renée Fleming’s artistry on the big screen at The Paramount Theater’s HD broadcast of The Metropolitan Opera’s live performance of Lehar’s The Merry Widow. On Friday, February 20, Fleming will grace the stage in person, and while opera houses

There’s something about the trees. As I walk through the exhibit, I pause to study each painting, but the trunk of a pastel pine tree stops me. Every stroke on its limbs is a living gesture, each green leaf and blue shadow a flick. The pastel landscape glows with the artist’s movements, each

Celebrate Fat Tuesday in style by tapping into those Southern roots. The Jazz Rascals warm up the evening with a set of Dixieland jazz. The nine-piece ragtime group performs traditional numbers by such greats as Jelly Roll Morton, Bessie Smith, and Duke Ellington. Jolie Fille takes the late

Sing and dance your Valentine’s blues away at the theme night Unlucky in Love: A Night of Outlaw Country with a Side of Garage with four of central Virginia’s rowdiest honky-tonk acts. Drunk Luke & The Broken Bottles bring some raucous country sing-alongs about frolicking, fighting, and

The room will be filled with love long before the first guest arrives at the second annual Country Sweethearts Valentine’s Day show at the Southern on Saturday. The women on the bill, Terri Allard, Holly Renee Allen, Tara Mills and Sally Rose, have such affection and admiration for each other

Every Wachowski movie, for better or worse, is a passion project. There is no theme, visual detail, character or line of dialogue to which the sibling duo does not have a deep personal attachment, from the hopeful nihilism of The Matrix to Cloud Atlas’ meditation on reincarnation and the risk

Aspiring yogis and curious connoisseurs of contemporary art, unite! Second Street Gallery is hosting another installment of the monthly Second Saturday Yoga Art Grooves series that launched in the fall of 2014. A collaboration between Opal Yoga and Second Street Gallery, each event in the

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island gets an update in a new stage adaptation broadcast from London’s National Theatre. Adapted by Bryony Lavery and directed by Polly Findlay, the well-known tale of money, murder and mutiny uses wit and casting twists to keep the energy on high. The